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Articles by Matt Roller
Ben Foakes targets top-six runs for Surrey despite England tail dilemma
Ben Foakes will continue to bat in the top six for Surrey in the early stages of the County Championship season, despite conceding that he is learning on the job while batting at No. 7 in England's Test team. Twenty-five Tests into his England career, Foakes has batted exclusively at No. 7 or 8 and has often struggled to adjust to batting alongside tailenders.
The Hundred Women's Competition
Southern Brave 157 for 6 (Mandhana 55) beat Trent Rockets 130 for 7 (N Sciver-Brunt 49, Taylor 3-20) by 27 runs The men's Hundred is short on overseas superstars after Rashid Khan's 11th-hour withdrawal but Smriti Mandhana's stylish 55 ensured the women's competition launched with a sprinkle of stardust at Trent Bridge. Mandhana's innings underpinned Southern Brave's 157, the highest total in the women's Hundred at this ground and one that proved a long way out of reach.
Brendon McCullum talks up Rehan Ahmed ahead of IPL auction
Brendon McCullum, England's Test head coach, believes "it would be awesome" for Rehan Ahmed to be signed by an IPL franchise for the 2023 season in Friday's auction in Kochi. Rehan became the youngest man to take a five-wicket haul on Test debut on Tuesday, running through Pakistan's middle and lower order to return figures on 5 for 48 and swing the Karachi Test England's way.
County Championship Division One
3:00 AM ET Matt Roller at the Ageas Bowl Hampshire 196 (Dawson 103) and 226 (Vince 142) beat Somerset 142 (Abbott 9-40) and 144 (Davies 51, Abbott 8-46) by 136 runs For the second day in a row, Kyle Abbott caused a major dent in Somerset's title ambitions by running through their top, middle, and lower order to finish with 17 wickets in the match, and returning the tenth-best match figures in first-class history.
County Championship Division One
3:00 AM ET Matt Roller at the Ageas Bowl Somerset 30 for 2 trail Hampshire 196 (Dawson 103, Gregory 3-63) by 173 runs Only twice this decade has a bowler ended a season with more than 50 Championship wickets at an average below 15, but after running through Hampshire's top order at the Ageas Bowl, Lewis Gregory has a fighting chance to put his name alongside Graham Onions and Morne Morkel in doing so.
Can Twenty20 cause the rebirth of the specialist keeper?
Sep 13, 2018 Matt Roller Close Matt Roller is a freelance cricket journalist. @mroller98 The sun is beating down on a parched Old Trafford in the hottest English summer on recent record. Derbyshire are 81 for 2, one ball short of halfway through their chase of 158. Wayne Madsen and Calum MacLeod have put on 51 for the third wicket, and look untroubled against Lancashire's spin-heavy attack.
County Championship Division One
Hampshire 148 (Northeast 53, J Overton 3-22, J Davey 3-40) and 75 for 4 (C Overton 3-16) beat Somerset 106 (Abbott 5-31) and 116 (Trescothick 50, Steyn 4-34, Abbott 6-40) by six wickets Scorecard Somerset slid to a two-day defeat at the Ageas Bowl to give Surrey the chance to seal a first Championship title since 2002 by avoiding defeat at New Road.
Sam Northeast's lone fifty edges Hampshire ahead on 19-wicket day
Hampshire 142 for 9 (Northeast 53, J Overton 3-22) lead Somerset 106 (Abbott 5-31) by 36 runs ScorecardFor three seasons in a row Hampshire have escaped relegation from Division One by little more than a whisker, and Sam Northeast's dogged 53 gave them a fighting chance of another great escape on a day that saw 19 wickets fall to seam at the Ageas Bowl.Going into last week's game at New Road, Hampshire looked set to be sucked into the relegation mire yet again, but that win and their...
Rawlins' chance to shine on the big stage
It is difficult to slip under the radar when your name is Delray Millard Wendell Rawlins, and Sussex's big-hitting Bermudan has made no attempts to do that in his fledgling career.His record in this year's Vitality T20 Blast might not look spectacular in its own right - 164 runs at 27.33 and a strike rate of 147.74 - but it would be foolish to view at Rawlins' career to date through the lens of numbers alone.After all, this is a man who made his international debut as a diminutive...
County Championship Division Two
Middlesex 169 (Holden 50*) and 232 (Eskinazi 60, Malan 70, Archer 5-69, Robinson 4-59) beat Sussex 171 (Harris 4-61) and 175 by 55 runs Scorecard If Middlesex's promotion charge turns out to be successful, they will look back on this victory as a season-defining one.
Middx 210/5 (75.0 ov, JAR Harris 24*, DJ Malan 69*, OE Robinson 2/46) - Stumps | Match Report | ESPNCricinfo
Middlesex 169 and 210 for 5 (Malan 69*, Eskinazi 60) lead Sussex 171 (Harris 4-61) by 208 runs Scorecard Not all fifties are created equal, and Dawid Malan knows that better than most Six weeks ago, he struck two of the more facile half-centuries of his first-class career in the England Lions win against India A on a lifeless New Road ahead of the first Test against India; here, on a green Lord's wicket, he was made to fight for every run by Sussex's seamers, but his measured, patient innings...
Sssx 120/6 (27.0 ov, CJ Jordan 8*, BC Brown 15*, JAR Harris 2/47) - Stumps | Match Report | ESPNCricinfo
Less than three years have passed since the domestic schedule was changed to avoid counties constantly switching between formats, but if this Sussex bowling effort was anything to go by then nothing could be easier than transitioning between T20 and a promotion charge.
4th Quarter-Final, Vitality Blast at Taunton, Aug 26 2018
Welcome to our live coverage of the Vitality Blast quarter-final between Somerset and Nottinghamshire. Stick around for updates, stats and colour from the game. If you don't see the blog immediately, please refresh the page
3rd Quarter-Final, Vitality Blast at Worcester, Aug 25 2018 | Match Report | ESPNCricinfo
Welcome to our live coverage of the Vitality Blast quarter-final between Worcestershire and Gloucestershire. Stick around for updates, stats and colour from the game. If you don't see the blog immediately, please refresh the page
2nd Quarter-Final (N), Vitality Blast at Chester-le-Street, Aug 24 2018
Welcome to our live coverage of the Vitality Blast quarter-final between Durham and Sussex. Stick around for updates, stats and colour from the game, alongside our usual ball-by-ball coverage. If you don't see the blog immediately, please refresh the page
1st Quarter-Final (N), Vitality Blast at Canterbury, Aug 23 2018
Welcome to our live coverage of the Vitality Blast quarter-final between Kent and Lancashire. Stick around for updates, stats and colour from the game, alongside our usual ball-by-ball coverage. If you don't see the blog immediately, please refresh the page
Counties lobby for Blast increase to 16 matches
Aug 21, 2018 Matt Roller Close Matt Roller is a freelance cricket journalist. @mroller98 The Vitality Blast group stage could be extended from 14 to 16 games because county chairmen are lobbying to rid the competition of its existing uneven format and maximise revenue in the process. Since 2014, each side has played seven home games in the group stages, meaning that they miss out on hosting one team, and counties are pushing for change both for competitive and commercial reasons.
Winners and losers - the story of the Blast group stages
Five weeks ago, Somerset left Bristol having suffered a second defeat in their opening three Blast games. Their game against Kent had struggled for ticket sales - prices had gone up over the winter, justified in part by the need to fund the signings of overseas players, and yet they had signed only one.
Leach and Bess poised as normal service resumed at Taunton
Somerset 324 (Trescothick 95, Abell 70, Siddle 5-80) and 32 for 1 lead Essex 191 (Ten Doeschate 73, J Overton 3-40) by 165 runs ScorecardIt took one session for normal service to resume after a season of curious wickets at Taunton.
County Championship Division One
Aug 19, 2018 Matt Roller Close Matt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets at @mroller98 Somerset 308 for 7 (Trescothick 95, Abell 70, Siddle 3-71) v Essex Scorecard Captains past and present combined as Marcus Trescothick and Tom Abell's fifties put Somerset on top against Essex on day one of a clash that both sides must win to keep their title ambitions alive.
Gloom in Cardiff as Surrey, Glamorgan both ousted
Surrey 60 for 0 (Finch 44*) beat Glamorgan 183 for 8 (Lloyd 39, T Curran 3-30) by 24 runs (D/L method) Scorecard A sense of uncertainty hung in the Cardiff air. Glamorgan and Surrey's Blast campaigns had both been plagued by inconsistency, but tonight's game had all the makings of a thriller: two sides battling it out with the tantalising prospect of a potential quarter-final in the offing.
South Group (N), Vitality Blast at Bristol, Aug 16 2018
Sussex 160 for 6 (Salt 60, Wiese 38, Howell 3-37) beat Gloucestershire 159 for 9 (Klinger 59, Rashid 3-24) by four wickets Scorecard Sussex's quarter-final hopes were hanging by a thread going into this week. But after tonight's four-wicket win against high-flying Gloucestershire, a win against the South Group's whipping boys Middlesex tomorrow night will see them through to the knockout stages for the first time since 2015.
T20 cricket's undercover dangerman
Four fifties in 91 innings. An average in the 20s. One season with more than 300 runs. In traditional cricketing metrics, Ross Whiteley does not stand out. Those statistics hint at an unremarkable twenty-over career, and from Whiteley's reserved manner it is hard to picture him as a swashbuckling, globe-trotting superstar.But the discourse of T20 cricket has changed.
Imran Tahir's bout of motorway madness
We've all been there. You check Google Maps to see how long the journey will take. You set off half an hour before you need to, just to be sure. Twenty minutes in, you hit traffic for the first time. "Just as well I set off early," you think to yourself, smugly. An hour later, not much progress. More fool you for trusting the British motorway system on a Friday afternoon. There's a sinking feeling in your gut.
Blast exodus is all a bit of a rum do
Last week, this column told the story of Imran Tahir's ill-fated journey from Chester-le-Street to Worcester, which resulted in the veteran spinner missing his final game for Durham.
Old Man Collingwood just keeps rolling along
Paul Collingwood became the oldest centurion in T20 history when he smashed his maiden century in the format against Worcestershire last summer, and he is back in the record books after playing in Durham's win against Nottinghamshire.At 42 years and 63 days old, Collingwood is the oldest man to play in English domestic T20, beating Robert Croft's previous record.
Bell and Burns become unlikely Twenty20 powerhouses
Records continue to tumble in the T20 Blast. Friday night's run fest means that this is the highest-scoring Twenty20 tournament ever, ahead of the 2017/18 Super Smash and the 2018 IPL.Surrey and Aaron Finch are leading the way, making their highest-ever T20 total (250 for 6) to follow scores of 192 and 222 last week.
Fuller's six pack can't deflect Hampshire from first win
Hampshire 184 (Munro 63, Fuller 6-28) beat Middlesex 163 for 9 (Munro 2-20) by 21 runs ScorecardHampshire sealed their first win of their T20 Blast campaign by putting struggling Middlesex to the sword at the Ageas Bowl in a performance which hinted that suggestions of their decline as a force in the format are premature.Between 2010 and 2015, Hampshire built the first real dynasty seen in T20 cricket, as their well-drilled, methodical side reached Finals Day every season, winning the title...
T20 fans struck dumb by the Blast's fatal flaw
Football supporters have always been able to take comfort in home advantage. The four teams that qualified for the Champions League last season - Manchester United, Manchester City, Tottenham and Liverpool - lost at home in the league only seven times in 76 matches.Even the three relegated clubs found comfort in winning in front of their own supporters 15 times between them.It is often claimed that home advantage counts for a lot in T20 cricket.
South Group (N), Vitality Blast at Brighton, Jul 13 2018
Aaron Finch bludgeoned the fifth T20 hundred of his career against Sussex's star-studded bowling attack to lift Surrey to a second win in as many days. Finch's brutal 131* - which included several huge blows for six as he took advantage of a flat Hove wicket and a short leg-side boundary - was the dominant innings in Surrey's total of 192 for 3, but it could all have been so different.
Ed Pollock's world-record exploits delight Birmingham
The Blast has a world record holder and, what's more he is English and barely known outside the West Midlands. Step forward Ed Pollock, whose exploits at the top of the order for Birmingham Bears have identified him as the most destructive batsman in Twenty20 cricket.It's very early days of course and the wise counsel of Ashley Giles, sport director at Edgbaston, will ensure he is told as much.
South Group, Vitality Blast at Taunton, Jul 8 2018
Kent 163 for 2 (Kuhn 67*, Bell-Drummond 58) beat Somerset 159 for 6 (Hildreth 57, Abell 36, Brathwaite 4-21) by eight wickets Scorecard Heino Kuhn's exceptional season with the bat continued at Taunton, as his unbeaten 67 helped Kent cruise to a ninth successive T20 win against Somerset. Kuhn, the top scorer in this year's Royal London Cup with 696 runs, put on 101 for the second wicket with Daniel Bell-Drummond as Somerset's bowlers floundered in the baking heat.
English T20 finally gets legspin fever
Imran Tahir's stint at Durham in the Vitality Blast will take his collection of England's 18 first-class counties to seven. It is too much to hope that Tahir, a veteran at 39, will one day manage to collect the whole set, even if he has been a mainstay of domestic T20 cricket in England for the past ten seasons, but it is quite a list.But Tahir's signing is also a reflection of a growing trend in the county game.
Slate debate continues as Union members pass non-binding motion
The motion passed with 49 votes to 40, but did not reach the 150 members required to reach quorum Members of the Oxford Union voted to abolish slates last night, though a failure to reach quorum means the ruling is not yet binding. After the main debate, a motion was heard urging the abolition of electoral slates from Union elections. It passed with 49 votes to 40.
Oxford coach calls for clarity in funding of university cricket
Graham Charlesworth said: "It’s potentially good news, but we’re not quite sure what the detail looks like." Oxford MCCU coach Graham Charlesworth has called for clarity over the future of university cricket, after the ECB announced that it would resume its funding in 2020. The existing scheme, taken over by the MCC in 2004, sees first-class cricket played by six ‘centres of excellence’, based at Cambridge, Cardiff, Durham, Leeds, Loughborough, and Oxford.
Sathnam Sanghera: “We’ve got to go through this painful process”
Sathnam Sanghera was born to Punjabi parents. He was brought up in Wolverhampton, and was raised as a Sikh. On his first day at school, he couldn’t speak English. Thirty years on, after graduating from Christ’s College, Cambridge with a first in English, he is one of The Times’ leading columnists, where he has worked for past ten years.
Half of colleges fail to provide halal food, says ISoc
Oxford's Islamic Society claim that 14 of Oxford's 30 undergraduate colleges fail to offer halal food in hall Nearly half of undergraduate colleges fail to offer halal food in hall for Muslim students, according to new data released by the University’s Islamic Society (ISoc). 14 of Oxford’s 30 undergraduate colleges (46.7%) – including Balliol, Hertford, and Merton – do not have any provision for halal food, the society claims.
Quarter of JCRs have transgender rep
Over a quarter of Oxford’s undergraduate colleges now have a transgender representative on their JCR committee. Queen’s College became the eighth to introduce the position this week, joining St Hugh’s, Magdalen, Lady Margaret Hall, Jesus, St John’s, Wadham, and St Hilda’s. Wadham SU was the first to introduce a trans rep, in the 2016-17 academic year. The motion at Queen’s used statistics from the SU’s LGBTQ+ Campaign’s recent survey of transgender students at the University.
Universities minister repeats call for ‘sanctions’ over access data
Oxford accepted fewer applications from poor neighbourhoods this year than any other mainstream institution Universities minister Sam Gyimah has threatened Oxford that it may face sanctions over access inequality, as the fall-out from the university’s first-ever undergraduate admissions reports continues. In an interview with The Telegraph, Gyimah said that “very hard levers” were available to the new Office for Students if the University’s admissions statistics did not improve.
Casual racism is endemic in Oxford
Casual racism is endemic in OxfordThe lazy, demeaning discourse of male Oxford students who fetishise mixed-race women is unacceptable, writes Millie Chu. We must start treating it as such.We set up Oxford’s first Mixed Heritage society this term for a wide range of reasons. Central to this was a desire to create a welcoming and inclusive space for people that may not feel that they fully ‘belong’ to other societies at Oxford.
Romeo and Juliet - Preview
SquidInk Theatre’s production of Romeo and Juliet at the Keble O’Reilly this week places the tale of gang warfare in a female offenders unit: HM Prison Verona. It is a production that promises to challenge audience preconceptions of the Shakespearean canon, as well as advance a conversation about women in the Criminal Justice System.
Join Cherwell’s editorial team for Michaelmas 2018
We’re now hiring for editorial positions for Michaelmas 2018. This is your opportunity to be part of one of the longest-running student newspapers in Europe, and to follow in the footsteps of past contributors like Evelyn Waugh, Hadley Freeman, and Evan Davis. Cherwell is recruiting for section editors, deputy section editors, illustrators, photographers, and broadcasters across all sections of the organisation.
Dining al Desko Preview - ‘a tale of high treachery and highlighters’
I first saw Dining Al Desko six months ago. A tale of high treachery and highlighters set in an office, it was expertly performed by Julia Pilkington as receptionist Julie in a distinctly un-theatrical room in Keble. It has grown considerably since then, with the addition of Christopher Page as Tom the accountant with another, interlinking monologue for a single performance at the Old Fire Station in January, and then a run at the prestigious National Student Drama Festival in March.
‘IT glitch’ means Clinton talk sells out before tickets go on sale
The tickets were due to be released at 9am today Tickets for this year’s Romanes Lecture sold out before they officially went on sale, due to an error with the University’s system. The University originally announced that registration to attend the talk, which will be delivered by Hillary Clinton, would open at 9am on Monday morning.
Disabled characters must no longer be the villains
When Cerrie Burnell was hired in 2009 to be a presenter for CBeebies there was a flurry of parents filing official complaints to the BBC to oppose this being “allowed” on their television screens. They argued that their children would be frightened and “freaked out” by Cerrie. Why? Because Cerrie’s lower right arm is missing. What led to such a reaction?
Hillary Clinton is coming to Oxford
The failed US presidential candidate will give the annual Romanes lecture Hillary Clinton will speak in Oxford at the end of the month. The failed US presidential candidate will give this year’s Romanes Lecture at the Sheldonian Theatre on 25th June. The event is open to Oxford University staff and students, and the general public. The Romanes Lecture is the University’s annual public lecture, and has been given since 1892.
Revealed: Colleges’ property investments worth £1.5 billion
Oxford colleges’ property investments are worth over £1.5 billion, Cherwell can reveal. An investigation by The Guardian revealed that Oxford colleges’ property holdings include a Scottish castle captured by Robert the Bruce, an international cricket ground, and a betting shop in one of London’s poorest boroughs. The estimated £1.521 billion valuation of colleges’ property investments is more than the total funding for all universities and higher education institutions for the next academic year.
Cowley Road chicken shop given late licence despite police concerns
A Cowley Road chicken shop has been given permission to stay open until 4am, despite warnings that a late closing time would boost crime and disorder. Pepe’s Piri Piri, which claims to be ‘The Home of Fresh Flame-Grilled Chicken’, was successful in its application for a late-night licence on Tuesday night at a City Council meeting. The news comes despite an objection from Thames Valley Police.
Keble and Pembroke win Summer VIIIs headships
Both crews rowed over on Saturday afternoon to seal their respective headships Keble and Pembroke won the men’s and women’s headships respectively in front of a packed final-day crowd at Summer VIIIs. Pembroke rowed over for a third consecutive day after bumping Wadham on the first afternoon of racing to ensure that for the first time since 2013, the headship changed hands, before Keble staved off the challenge of a resurgent Oriel to become Head of the River for the first time in 41 years.
Law Faculty slammed for case list change
Law finalists have claimed the Faculty was “too embarrassed to admit they didn’t do a very basic proofread” after excluding headings and subheadings from a case list. In a departure from normal practice, the case list released for the FHS Tort exam did not contain headings and subheadings.
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